Innovative medical education in State College, PA

Penn State College of Medicine's University Park Regional Campus wants to move medical education into the 21st century.

Traditional medical education requires students to spend two years immersed in basic sciences before two years of clinical study. Our new modern curriculum, which is currently under development, aims to integrate the two areas and prepare students for the ongoing practice of evidence-based medicine in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.

Penn State College of Medicine has a tradition of excellence in education that is scientifically and clinically rigorous with a deep foundation in scholarship and humanistic care. Building on our experience, and benefiting from the resources that our regional campus in University Park offers, we invite you to learn in an environment that fosters inter-professional team skills, curiosity, and a commitment to the calling of medicine.

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About the Program

Student Design Partners are collaborating with professional educators to build an entirely new, modern medical curriculum.

Patient-based Experiences

Immersion with patients and health care systems from the first days of medical school, integrated with active small group discussions, will drive your development as a humanistic physician and your discovery of basic science, clinical science, and health systems sciences concepts.

Individualized Mentoring

Our small class size allows for one-on-one mentoring from our core faculty, and you will also be a part of a “student-centered educational home” that is designed to support diverse, inter-professional longitudinal learning relationships. This entire program of individualized “coaching” will ensure that you are able to take full advantage your experiential learning opportunities.

Asynchronous Learning

We all learn best when we can connect the skills and knowledge to our own lives. The early patient experiences and individualized mentoring, along with frequent competency-based feedback, will make this possible and provide you with the support necessary to ensure that you will reach your educational goals.

Community Engagement

You will collaborate with patients, community representatives, and systems sites to learn and develop community-based solutions that improve healthcare outcomes.

A Culture of Respect and Humanistic Care

The Penn State College of Medicine was the first medical school in the nation to have a Department of Humanities and we remain committed to fostering the development of humanistic, curious health care professionals who practice collaborative inquiry and self-reflection.

Why a Regional Campus?

At current medical school graduation and training rates, the U.S. could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next fifteen years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Physicians who understand community needs will be in greatest demand, with an estimated 45,000 more needed by 2020. This reality holds true in central Pennsylvania, which has made it difficult to manage the health needs of the local community, including Penn State employees, retirees and their dependents. The Penn State Medical Group in State College is growing and working very hard to overcome this challenge.

This growth is part of a larger vision to build a community-connected regional medical campus for Penn State College of Medicine at University Park, in collaboration with Mount Nittany Health. With the support and leadership of the Penn State College of Medicine, its University Park Regional Campus is training the next generation of physicians and other health professionals in the State College community, thanks to the support and leadership of Penn State College of Medicine.

Community engagement, health systems science and innovative, trans-disciplinary educational strategies form the centerpiece for the educational mission of the regional campus. Students will learn in an environment that fosters interprofessional team skills, curiosity and commitment to the calling of medicine.